The White House has signalled that President Donald Trump is weighing carrying out new strikes on Iran as the United States presses for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
There were no US strikes on Iran overnight, but Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it had struck another two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and Kuwait said it intercepted drones.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed the US administration’s frustration anew, charging that Tehran in June signed a memorandum of understanding with the US on a truce but then quickly “broke it, shot at commercial ships, and killed American soldiers".
“President Trump is not going to stand by and allow this terrorist behaviour to occur,” Leavitt said on Friday.
“Iran will continue to pay until they come to the table in, what President Trump deems, a meaningful way.”
Leavitt issued the fresh warning after Trump earlier on Friday told reporters that “we just want to win” in Iran and signaled that he expected US military action to continue for some time.
“We’ll be hitting them very hard,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters during a meeting with members of his Cabinet at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
“You know, at some point they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore.’”
Iran fired drones at Kuwait, a Gulf country hosting US forces, and said it had also fired at oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil and gas shipments, which has been largely closed by the fighting.
Kuwait’s Defence Ministry Friday said its armed forces had shot down drones inside Kuwaiti airspace. It said the Iranian attacks had targeted several vital military facilities, causing material damage from falling shrapnel but no casualties.
It did not specify how many drones were intercepted. Iranian state media said Iran had targeted an air base in Kuwait with drones in retaliation for US strikes on Thursday.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed to have hit two oil tankers attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state media said four other tankers had turned around. The report did not provide further details on the tankers’ ownership, or whether there were any casualties.
The war in Gaza began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, killed around 1200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry says.
Meanwhile, CBS News reported on Friday that the US and Israel are planning a bombing campaign against energy infrastructure targets in Iran, with strikes possible throughout the weekend.
Trump has yet to give the final go-ahead for the strikes, according to sources cited by CBS.
The campaign would be one of the harshest yet against Iranian energy infrastructure during the US-Israeli war against Iran, CBS reported, adding there was discussion about concluding the strikes before financial markets open on Monday.
with Reuters
